1) If $1 out of $4 goes to pay the deficit, that means the base price of gas is still $3 per gallon. The oil companies are still getting rich and nothing changes.
2) I don't trust the government to spend any money wisely. They get something like this, and it's just another way to get their hand in my pocket. Within five years, they'd either divert it to other uses or piss it all away and say they need more.
3) No matter what some environmentalists say, no matter what economists say, a good chunk of the country was getting crushed financially when gas was at $3 per gallon. We can handle it for a while. But make it a permanent or long-term thing, and you have to either raise wages significantly (and end up with inflation) or slide into a recession because the only thing people can afford is gas.